Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-04-16


A GERMAN astronomer has found
reasons for believing that the zodiac
light and the aurora borealis resulf
from the reflection of sunlight by water
and ice.
The teeth of an individual often yarv
greatly In hardness at intervals. and Z
Berlin physician, w. d. Miller. ia en-
perimenting to show that this is due To-
q varying proportion of lime salts IN
the food.
PROBABLY no application of science
is developing more rapidly than pho
Biography. Among recent appliances il
detective camera in the form of =
watch, with charm to hold q supply
of miniature dry-plates, and q tele-
scopic camera in which distant objects
are brought near by telescope aid and
photographed.
A MARINE alga of Arctic regions
grows at temperature far below zero,
and its spores disappear at higher tenn
peratures. 1t thus appears that In
tense cold is necessary to the existence
OF some forms of vegetable life, to.
gether with extreme dryness, and this
class of plants probably includes the
cryptogams Of red snow.
Tbs method of vultures in finding
carrion is seen by their habits of dis
tributing themselves like sentinels
over wide tracts of country. Their
keen eyes. as they circle over miles Of
territory, scan every object, telegraph
ing to the adjoining sentinel, many
miles away, the discovery of prey. In
this way, during the Crimean war, it il
said that the vultures of Northern
Africa focked in scores around the
contending armies. coming from thou
sands of miles.
HE recent exhaustive researches BY
Mr.. Verbeek into all the phenomens
connected with the red sun CLOVIS of
1883 and 1884 have led him to conclude
that they were caused mainly by the
masses of aqueous vapor thrown out by
the volcano Krakatoa. In this view.
the watery vapor elected by Krakatoa,
after condensing and freezing in the
high air, produces the remarkable sum
set, though the ashes may have in
tensified the phenomena besides serving
as center of condensation.
Mr.. ]. Mcneil, of Indiana University.
mentions long-horned beetle (Eburi0
QaladrigemiqaatO which lived no less
than nineteen years, and probably more
than twenty, in an ash door sill. Two
similar cases of remarkable longevity
in beetles are recorded by Packard. A
specimen of Monohanan1s coefaIsor,
the common pine-borer, lived more
than fifteen years in pine bureau; and
three beetles-probably Cerasphorus
balteatus-came from an apple-tree
table, the first after q residence therein
of twenty years and the last OF twenty.
eight years.
A MEMBER of the London Astro-
nomlcal Society has pointed out that
the common assumption that frag-
ment of meteor dust no larger than
mustard seed may give the brilliancy
Of a first-magnitude star, is erroneous
To give that brightness at distance of
100 miles, about that at which meteors
are usually seen, would require an
electric lamp of 10,O0O-candle power.
It is therefore probable that the
smallest visible meteors have surface
equal to the incandescent portion of
10O-cand1e power electric arc, If not
much greater.
The contagiousness of leprosy, says
Science, has for long time been q
mooted question. The Royal College
of Physicians, in order to obtain the
best information on this subject, sent.
inquiries to physicians throughout the
world, whose practice had brought them
in contact with the disease, and whose
opinions would therefore be of value.
Thirteen of these have no doubt of it's
contagiousness, and thirty-four enter
tain no doubt of its non-contagiousness.
Twelve regarded leprosy and syphilis
rs being intimately related; twenty-one
believed there was no relation. Most
Of those to whom the inquiries were
sent regard leprosy as hereditary, and
also that it may originate spontaneously
under suitable conditions.